Paris’ perspective sobering commentary

On my desk is a copy of the 1987 classic, “Throw Momma From the Train,” starring Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal. I look forward to any awards ceremony, or pretty much any movie with Crystal involved.

For its NBA connections and great comedic elements, “Forget Paris” is above all other Crystal films. It’s about a couple who meet and fall in love during a few days in Paris and spend the rest of their marriage struggling to rekindle that feeling.

I’m in a similar quandary, because I can’t forget Paris … Hilton. As the heiress and reality television show star serves a deserved jail sentence for violating probation, I have to hear about it from everybody.

I can’t read the news to get critical updates about Iraq or the 2008 presidential race, because it’s buried in stories about Hilton’s medical condition that gave her a temporary house arrest option.

I can’t get away from it when I’m online, because my friends instant message me to say, “What do you think about Paris?” Apparently, “I don’t care” with expletives isn’t a legitimate answer.

And even when I don’t avoid it by watching E! or “Entertainment Tonight,” I’m disappointed.

An exclusive “Entertainment Tonight” interview had one expert telling me the Hilton saga was a terrible example of entertainment tainting our judicial system. Unfortunately, the expert was Judith Sheindlein, a.k.a. Judge Judy. To review, the person who’s made nearly $100 million on turning small claims cases into daytime TV and writing respectable books like, “Don’t Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining” is commenting on entertainment interfering with the law.

I’d be relieved about the whole thing if Hilton learned crime didn’t pay. However, E! News gave a Sunday report that many clubs were looking to pay Hilton nearly $1 million to be the guest at a “Get Out of Jail” party.

Then again, maybe clubs wouldn’t pay all that money for her presence if she hadn’t become famous on “The Simple Life,” a reality show where she and Nicole Ritchie couldn’t hold a job but never faced any consequences because they were rich and attractive. Well, at least reality television has that right.

Throughout all of the media coverage I’ve seen, I’ve only known one person to get it right. She said she was “shocked” the case received so much attention and “more important things like the men and women serving our country in Iraq” deserve our focus.

That person was Paris Hilton. The only one who makes sense in any of this is the criminal herself.

I need to get away from all of this. I think I’ll go rent “City Slickers.”

Kevin Wilson is a columnist for Freedom Newspapers of New Mexico. He can be reached at:
kevin_wilson@link.freedom.com